Wardrobe for schools



March 29, 19384. R. G. Ross 1129347 y WARDROBE FOR SCHOOLS Original Filed Sept. 6, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l R. G. Ross WARDROBE FOR SCHOOLS March 29, 1938.

Original Filed Sept. 6, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 21 jven-or Ibm Gazzawa'yfoss 06u51/ J 7H@ Patented Mar. 29, 1938 UNITED STATES 2,112,347 WARDRQBE FOR SCHOOLS Robert Galloway Ross, Charlotte, N. C.

Application September 6, 1935, Serial No. 39,468

' Renewed August 1 0, 1937 Claims.

10 frame carried by the cabinet itself; to provide novel means for preventing banging of the doors as they roll; to provide improved means for ventilating the cabinet and for preventing dust from getting into the upper portion of the cabinet;

and to provide a novel modification of the cabinet,

especially suited for cabinets which are constructed of Wood instead of metal.

I attainvthese and other objects of my invention by the apparatus illustrated in the accom-- panying drawings, in Which- Figure 1 is a front elevation of the invention with a portion of the wall structure surrounding the cabinet broken away to show the supporting mechanism for supporting the door balancing weights;

Fig. 2 is a detail modification of a supporting mechanism arranged to be attached to the building structure instead of to the cabinet;

Fig. 3 is a detail top plan of the Weights and guides for same and also of one form of Weightlinking device;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the weights with an illustration of another form of linking the weights together for simultaneous operation of the doors;

Fig. 5 is a vertical section of the complete metal cabinet on line 5--5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a similar vertical section of a preferably Wooden cabinet, with the lower portion of the back elevated;

Fig. '7 is a horizontal. section on line 1-1 of Fig. 1, member I4 being omitted from this view;

Fig. 8 is a detail vertical section through the cabinet showing the improved safety device in front plan, the dotted line illustration showing the mechanism in its unlocked position;

Fig. 9 is a, detail perspective view of one of the Weight members;

Fig. 10 is an edge elevation, reduced size, of the Weights and of springs 2| at the bottom of the cabinet to prevent banging of the doors in opening;

Fig. 11 is a detail edge elevation of a modied type of spring for preventing banging of the doors in opening same;

(Cl. 31a- 189) Fig. 12 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a door check used to prevent banging of the doors in opening same; and

Fig. 13 is a detail sectional view through the door of one of my cabinets showing my preferred type of handle 24 disposed in a recess 23, whereby the handle does not project `beyond the plane of the outer surface of the door.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, the rear Wall of the compartment of the building 10 structure in which the wardrobe is to be placed is designated as I., While the front wall above the compartment is designated as 2. In this cornpartment is placed the preferably metal cabinet 3, the member 4 designating the upper portion of 15 the back Wall which, with shelf 33, forms the upper compartment 5; and 4 designating the lower back Wall which, with shelf 33, forms the lower compartment 6. I provide a suitable vertically sliding door 1 for the cabinet. I also provide a 2o vertical track 8, which is Z-shaped in cross section. I provide a weight 9 attached to cable I0,- Which is threaded. over pulleys II, the other end of the cable I0 being fastened at I2 to the safety arms I3 of the safety device carried on any suit- 25 able portion of the door. The arms I3 are pivotally connected at their lower ends to the inner ends of the horizontally extending arms I4 which are beveled at their ends, as shown, and adapted to releasably engage in the rack bars or safety 30 catches I8, the said rack bars I8 being mounted on the element 8 in both Figs. 7 and 8. The element 8 is fastened to the inside facing of the front of the cabinet. I provide springs I5 fastened to mounting bars Il and having their other 35 ends fastened to the safety lock bars I4 to normally hold said members in retracted position.

As shown in Fig. 1, the cabinet is provided with a facing I9 which constitutes an extension of Wall 2, as shownin Fig. 5, and which seats snugly 40 against the outer portion of the vertically sliding door 'l to make the upper part of the cabinet substantially dust-proof, as it is substantially closed when the door is in proper position. The cabinets are arranged in pairs. On the facing which intervenes between each pair of cabinets is a door 20 for affording access to the weights 9 and springs 2|. On the compartment between the cabinets I provide a plurality of springs 2| positioned to connect vwith the bottom of weights 50 9 when said weights are lowered as the door nears the limit of its upward range of movement, thereby preventing banging of the door of the cabinet as. it is opened.

Numeral 22 .designates a suitable chalk rail as 55 the panel 4I of the cabinet may be either a conventional panel or may be a black board.

As shown in Figs. 1, 5 and 6, I provide-a curved recess portion 23 in which is mounted a rubber handle 24. The members 23 and 24 are positioned part way upon the cabinet door so that the user of the cabinet can grasp same without stooping and raise the doors sufficiently to grasp the conventional metal handle 26 at the bottom of the doors. The shape of this recess 23, as

' shown more clearly in the enlarged view of Fig.

13, is such that the fingers will be pushed out and not caught and mashed should the operator allow his hand to remain on the flexible handle 24 until the hands or lingers came in contact with the top door lamb.

As shown in Fig. 9, wheels or rollers 25 are mounted on the opposite narrow sides of weight 9. These rollers travel in the track of the I beam 38, as shown in Fig. 3. Also as shown in this figure, I provide a pair of hooks 26 and 21 adapted to engage each other and hold the Weights together for simultaneous operation in controlling both doors of a pair of cabinets. As an alternative or modified construction, I may provide the hook 21 mounted on the sides of the weights and engaging a suitable pin, as shown in Fig. 4.

As shown in Fig. 1, I provide vertical supports or legs 28 affixed to the tops of a pair of cabinets and carrying beam 29, on which the pulleys I I which carry the cable I are suspended.

In Fig. 2 there is illustrated a modification of the invention in which a similar beam 3| is fastened to studs 30 on the building structure, instead of being mounted directly on the cabinets themselves.

Referring to Fig. 6 of the drawings, there is illustrated a modified form of the invention in which a lower back wall 4 is eliminated, leaving the portion of the cabinet below the shelf 33 open at the back. The cabinet is spaced from the wall I of the building and fastened to the building by suitable brackets aiiixed to the upper back of the wall 4 of the cabinet, as illustrated.

In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 5, I provide suitable ventilation openings 34 inthe rear wall 4 of the cabinet. It will be noted that all of these ventilation openings are in a plane below that of the shelf 33. The front door 1 of the cabinet has a ventilation opening 35 at thebottom, the direction of air currents being indicated by arrows in Fig. 5. There is a similar ventilation opening 35 in the modied form of the cabinetv shown in Fig. 6. The air circulates through'the space 32 and back of the wall 4 of the upper part of the cabinet, as indicated by the arrows, or-in a reverse direction, depending on temperature conditions.

Referring to Fig. 12, there is illustrated a detail of a modiiied means for preventing banging of 'the doors of the cabinet when they are-raised,

consisting of an air cylinder 31 and piston 36, which function as a door check to retard the movement of the door when it has nearly reached the end of its upward range of travel.

An alternative means for checking the movement of the door and preventing its being banged when it is opened is illustrated in Fig. l1, in which view there is. shown a curved flat spring, one end of which is affixed to the track 8, which frequently engages the edge of the door to retard the movement of same.

Also, as shown in Fig. 11, I provide guide strips 42 on the vertical edges of the door, these guide strips being of hard fiber or similar material and serving to prevent metal to metal contact, thereby preventing the noise that would result from such metal contact.

Member 4I shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings may be either a conventional panel or a blackboard.

In actual practice the cabinet is customarily installed in units of two wardrobes, as shown in Fig. 1, the doors being counterweighted by the flat weights 9 which move up and down in the chamber between the. wardrobes. These weights may either be put together so that the raising of one door may also raise the other door, or they may be unhooked and operated independently of each other, thus permitting of independent operation of the doors. To raise the door the user may grasp the upper rubber handle 24 and raise the door until the metal handle 26 is within reach.

The doors of the wardrobe are prevented from being banged by children by either of the three means which I have illustrated in the accompanying drawings, namely, the springs 2I on which the weights may rest when they have neared the end of their possible range of travel; or by means of a at spring 40, as illustrated in Fig. 1l frictionally engaging the edge of the door and thus retarding its speed; or by a suitable door-check such 'as members 36 and 31 shown in Fig. 12 arranged to check the speed or movement of the door whenA it nears the end of its possible range of travel. The weights 9 are kept in proper position by the rollers 25 on the opposite narrow side of the weights, which rollers travel in the tracks 38, as shown in Fig. 3.

It will be observed that the rubber handles 24 are seated in concave recesses 234 of wooden doors, such as illustrated in Fig. 13, or in a similarly shaped curved portion 23 of the cabinets having metal doors 1, suchfas shown in Figs. and 6.

The cables I0, which are connected to counterwei-ghts 9, are secured to pivotally connected links I3, which in turn are pivotally connected with the rods I4, which latter rods are actuated 'by the spring I5 to engage in the Arack bar I8 to prevent accident or injury if the cable end should give way and allow the door to drop, since element for detachably securing the counter- Weights together, whereby the doors of the two cabinets may be operated either simultaneously or independently depending on Awhether lthe weights are hooked together or disconnected, and

a door on the weight compartment of the cabinet for gaining access lto the weights.

2. In a wardrobe4 ofthe type described, the combination of a wardrobe having a door slidable within and in contact with one of its walls, said door having a recessed portion, and having an upper resilient handle to prevent the ngers of the operator bein-g caught and mashed should he allow his hand to' remain on the flexible handle until the fingers vcome in contact with the door jamb, said resilient handle being mounted and lying wholly within the recessed portion of vthe door to prevent the handle from stopping the sliding movement of the door.

3. In a wardrobe of the type described, the

combination with the wardrobe of a shelf posil tioned in the upper portion of same and extend ing substantially to the plane of the doors, a plurality of doors, counterweghts for said doors, a cable connecting each door withy a counterweight, means for supporting said cables above the wardrobe, means for operatively connecting or disconnecting the cables from. eachother for simultaneous or independent operation of the doors selectively substantially as and for the purposes described.

4. In combination with the wardrobe defined in claim 3, the wardrobe havin-g one or more ventilation openings in the front wall near the bottom thereof, and having one or more ventilation openings in the rear wall near the middle portion thereof and in a plane substantially above the plane of the ventilation openings in the front wall of the wardrobe to divert a current of air from the ventilation opening of the front wall through the ventilation opening of the rear Wall and away from the upper portion Within the wardrobe, for the purposes described.

5. In combination with the wardrobe defined in claim 3, coil springs aligned with and disposed below theaf/oresaid counterweights to contact lll with same to gently check the movement of the doors as they near the end of their range of travel, to prevent banging of the doors when operated rapidly.

ROBERT GALLOWAY ROSS. 

